The Rockets Are Optimistic:  The Houston Rockets have not sat out the off-season. They were in the mix with Marcin Gortat; they got after Trevor Ariza very quickly when talks with the Lakers soured. They were involved in talks with New Orleans about Tyson Chandler; they opted instead to trade for David Andersen who cost them less in terms of assets.

The draft was very good to them, grabbing NBA caliber players out of the second round. Summer League provided proof of growth for their squad, but the Rockets are still going to open the season without Yao Ming and the prognosis on Tracy McGrady is positive but until he plays you just don't know.

You'd think the Rockets would be scrambling for a deal, however Rockets' GM Darryl Morey says he's talking to teams every day, but there is no rush to make a bad deal.

"It's more we're in patient mode," Morey said to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. "We're trying to add players through trades primarily who help us win now and in the future. It does put a higher bar on the moves. They are a little more rare. We're not trying to move any contracts. Now that we have a pretty good sense Yao will be back next year, definitely the plan is to put a team around Yao for next year, and be as competitive as we can this year."

"History would say other moves are coming," Morey said. "It is less likely this is (the) roster.

"If we could add an all-star-caliber player, that would be a home run. Teams don't give them away. To outperform expectations, we need one of our players to play at an All-Star level or Mac to come back and play at that level, or a trade."

"You're always trying to do better, but I don't think disappointed would be the word," Morey said of not being able to make a splashy deal yet. "We're continually vigilant to upgrade. We're at a somewhat stable point. We feel like we can be competitive. We're always looking for the next step.

"I think we're going to have a tall task ahead of us to be a playoff team. I think that is the goal for us. The history of teams with no all stars making playoffs is pretty limited."

The biggest trade chips the Rockets have are Shane Battier, which the Rockets are reluctant to part with and the ending contract of Tracy McGrady.

League sources say interest in McGrady is extremely low, most teams willing to explore him are offering dreadful contracts or no talent. The belief is that Houston is better off seeing if Tracy can indeed play this season as the Rockets are telling people and get him on the floor to raise his value. As it stands today, Tracy is worth more as an ending contract to Houston's salary cap than what he can return in trade.

Battier has value, but the belief is once Houston trades him they will start to fall apart as a team as he is the primary glue guy that has made it all work to this point, his leadership especially with so many young guys is highly valued in Houston. He's not untouchable, but he'd have to return a quality upgrade for Houston to consider it.

The Rockets have interest in deals; it's simply a case of waiting out the market and finding the right upgrades. The Rockets are not delusional that this team as constructed in a power team in the West and they are aggressively looking at ways to change that.

This is from hoopsworld.com

Now if this is true, then I'd like to keep Mac...as for Battier, i was more open to trading him just a few weeks ago, but after reading this im not feeling it...

Anyway we need something to read so here it is